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Local Restaurants Will Change Course After Coronavirus Dining-In Ban

Black Sparrow Facebook

 

Restaurants, bars, and nightclubs will officially be closed to in-person patrons to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Indiana.

The policy is included on a list of new guidelines Gov. Eric Holcomb will be announcing today. Take-out and delivery service is still allowed under the new rule through the end of March.

“Starting at 5 p.m. tonight, we’re going to start our menu through delivery through us,” said John Olakowski, general manager of the downtown Lafayette restaurant Black Sparrow. “So we’ll have our staff driving the orders out and stuff like that, so they can keep working.”

Olakowski said the “line in the sand” was drawn on Saturday.

“Friday, we were full,” Olakowski said. “Saturday, it was a ghost town.”

Olakowski said the governor’s announcement wasn’t a shock to the restaurant’s roughly 20 staff, who began making plans for the delivery service over the past several days. He said the goal is for everyone to keep working--and for the restaurant and its employees to recoup some of their losses.  He also hopes that includes the ability to deliver alcohol to patrons, something he points out states like New York will be allowing.

“So, in our case, 50 percent of our revenue comes from liquor sales,” Olakowski said.

Gov. Holcomb speaks at 2:30 p.m Monday afternoon. 

 

*This post will be updated.